GOP Damaged By Tea Party Debt Ceiling Fiasco

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Apparently playing cat-and-mouse with the nation’s credit rating and stocks hasn’t endeared the Tea Party-infused GOP to the electorate:

A new survey by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research for Democracy Corps and Women’s Voices. Women Vote Action Fund reveals voters’ growing discontent with Washington. This survey was fielded at a unique time—right after the credit rating downgrade—and we are seeing a uniquely bleak response from the American people. Three quarters of voters now believe the country is on the wrong track, up 14 points since June, and the lowest in our tracking of this question since the 2008 financial crisis.

Both parties in Congress lose ground, but Republicans have born the brunt of the backlash. Two thirds disapprove of House Republicans and 44 percent strongly disapprove– a 7 point surge since June. By a margin of 54 to 36 percent, voters say that the more they hear from House Republicans, the less they like.

The President’s approval rating remains stable, but a striking 53 percent say that they will consider voting for a third party candidate next year.

While GQR is a Democratic firm, nonpartisan ones, like Pew and NYT/CBS News, also found the Congressional GOP — and its new Tea Party brand — coming out of this fight the loser, with the conservative movement arousing significantlyhigher unfavorable ratings since January.

That being said, the president didn’t exactly gain stature during the tumultuous fight: he clings to a smaller lead than ever over Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney. Three quarters of voters think the country is on the wrong track and a record 82 percent disapprove of Congress.

And the GQR poll shows Obama’s signature domestic achievement — the healthcare overhaul — still arouses much more anger than appreciation by the public at large 15 months after enactment, and less than a year before it will be front-and-center in the general election.

The GOP has been transformed into something frightening and unreasonable. Back in the days of William F. Buckley one could have well-reasoned, intelligent arguments with Republicans, and come away both entertained and enlightened. Today’s GOP regards intelligence and education with suspicion, is enmired in silly conspiracy theories, hugely intolerant of any form of dissent, and tends to invent its own fantasy-based reality to conform to its authoritarian dogma. I often suspect that the Tea Party would feel more comfortably parading about in the white bed sheets and pointy hats of old. They have a lot of creepy cult-like elements to their political philosophy. I miss the GOP I grew up with.

GlenOsness

The GOP used to be a responsible, pro-business party that recognized the need to maintain a social safety net. Now they just sound like a bunch of anti-Obama anarchists!

kurt.lorentzen

Of course the GOP sounds like Obama bashers. Both parties are guilty of exactly the same thing when it comes to election season. Right now, the Dems are just biding their time as their own political analysts sit in the back room and try to guess who will be the Republican nominee so that they can get their own smear mongers to do exactly the same thing from their angle. You should take a look from the center (where you can see both sides clearly). What you’ll see is that Democrats think more debt is the answer and Republicans see debt as the problem. Both are equally to blame for getting us into the position of being upside down on the mortgaging of our country. Most Americans really do understand that we can’t finance good will with debt any longer. The numbers are large, but it’s still just 3rd grade math: You can’t spen a half a Trillion dollars on Interest (buys nothing) so you can spend more on government that continues to increase that interest year after year. That 1/2 Trillion would go half way toward funding government. The difference could much more readily be made up in tax revenues and spending cuts. But to get there we have to pay off the debt, and that will be painful. Come November of next year we’ll once again vote for the lesser of two evils. And the tip of the hat will go to the party that is perceived to best be able to get us out of debt.

cminhtown

For once I at least partially agree with jwasniak. I am unfortunatly a conservative right now. I feel it necissary to point out that my fellow conservatives still have thier heads up thier asses. Instead of keeping focused on the important issues at hand they would rather continue to try to subjugate homosexuals by continuing to discriminate against them by not allowing them to marry thus keeping some sort of fake moral high ground that only they think they have. Another black eye for my party is it’s inability and blatant unwillingness to close the tax loop-holes and “special” tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans. I am an average blue-collar guy and I can’t afford a team of premium C.P.A.s and tax lawyers to get me off the hook. I have to admit, it was my party’s arrogance and complete lack of self-awareness that made people (including me) so willing to vote for a wellspoken,Chicago goood ole boy.